Monday, February 25, 2008

Doing Battle with Hope Fiends, Crockheads, and Moonbatshiners (3.21.09)

Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. --Ezra Klein, blogging under the influence

A black man with a white mother became a savior to us. A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.... This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better.... If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed. --Calypso Louis

Continuing with our analysis of the Devil Card, Unknown Friend (UF) writes that the excesses of the left are always "owing to an intoxication of the will and imagination which engenders demons." For example, if Marx and Engels had merely behaved as good Jews or Christians and "simply defended the interests of the industrial workers without having let themselves be carried away by their intoxicated imagination," then they wouldn't have been so very destructive. After all, every normal person wants to help the poor and needy, but helping them at the end of a gun, as the left always want us to do, renders any spiritual benefit inoperative for both parties.

Moreover, the left always couches their supposed empathy for the downtrodden in fantastically broad and sweeping generalizations of historical "and even cosmic significance, such as the statement that God does not exist, that all religion is is only the 'opium of the people,' [and] that all ideology is only a superstructure on the basis of material interests." It is no different today, with the intoxication that fuels and pervades the Obama campaign:

"What we hear from Obama is the eternal mantra of the socialists; America is broken, millions have no health care, families cannot afford necessities, the rich are evil, we are selfish, we are unhappy, unfulfilled, without hope, desperate, poverty stricken, morally desolate, corrupt and racist. This nihilism is the lifeblood of all the democrat candidates, even 'hope you can believe in' performers like Obama. When Michelle Obama claims she is only newly proud of her country, she does not exaggerate. In her world as in Obama's, they believe we are a mess, a land filled with the ignorant and unenlightened, filled with despair" (Fairchok).

Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic. --Pope Benedict XVI

As UF writes, it is always a "matter of excess -- a going beyond the limits of competence and sober and honest knowledge," which the left never doubts, "having been carried away by the intoxicating impulse of radicalism, i.e. by a fever of the will and imagination to change everything utterly at a single stroke."

It used to be said of alcoholism that that you can't drown your sorrows because they learn how to swim. The odd thing about the left is that the purpose of their intoxication is not to drown their sorrows but to deny their blessings. Because if one looks at the plain facts in a sober and detached way, we cannot help seeing that, as Fairchok writes,

"Our economy bustles along, with inevitable ups and downs, but remains strong. Americans live better than ever before. As a nation, we live in the best of times, a place that the rest of humanity covets. We did this by the sweat of our brows and the energy of our people. We have more education, more luxury, more life options, more of everything good and far less of everything bad, less disease, less poverty and less struggle than ever before. We have prosperity, we have employment, we have technology. Hope is what America is all about; hope that has every expectation of success. Consider the millions that are desperate to get here. Even our poor have cars, appliances and entertainments. Our concern for them is not hunger but obesity. Never before in the history of mankind has this contradiction existed."

And it is the fever dream of sweeping existential change that animates the left no less than the Islamists. As Lee Harris has written, a fantasy ideology such as Islamism is obviously not a rational response to the world arrived at in a logical, sober manner. Rather, it is a transformative belief, meaning that its primary purpose is to psychologically transform the person who believes the fantasy. And believing the fantasy is an end in itself -- it has no purpose other than to make the fantasy seem like reality -- like it might actually happen. Therefore, the real reason for 9-11 wasn't actually to bring down western civilization. Rather, it was for the Islamists to deepen their fantasy by getting us to play along with it.

Likewise, anyone with a basic familiarity with economics knows that leftist ideas don't just fail, but backfire. They cause all sorts of unintended consequences that the leftist never connects to the original policy -- e.g., how the welfare state eroded the structure of the black family, how racial quotas inevitably harm blacks, how rent control causes housing shortages, or how subsidizing higher education simply drives up the cost. "Progressivism is the wish to eliminate effects without wishing to eliminate their causes..." (Schuon).

Now, UF explains that the virtue of temperence protects us from the intoxicating counter-inspiration of radical fantasies -- including religious fantasies, such as the Inquisition. Remember, there was a time not too long ago when there was no "secular sphere," so that these demonic trends necessarily expressed themselves within the heart of the Church. As such, it is foolish to blame religion for something that is wholly manmade.

UF makes the subtle point that one cannot engender a positive egregore, or collective mind parasite. This is related to the principle that the mind parasite is an effect of "congealed" or "coagulated" psychic energy. As a result, it always "enfolds," whereas the good radiates. The former is an inward, contracting movement, whereas the latter is an expansive, radiant movement. This may sound overly abstract, but we are all familiar with the closed world of the left, whether it is their elite university campuses or the parochial and hidebound pages of the New York Times. If you approach these things with your activated cOOnvision, you can literally experience them as a sort of dense, black hole of inverse radiation.

Now, why did people respond to, say, Ronald Reagan? For the opposite reason -- the intrinsically unlimited radiant positive energy of which he was a mere vehicle. This only became more apparent when placed side by side with Jimmy Carter's withered and constipated presence.

I suppose the novel thing about Obama is that he is selling the same constipation, but with a kind of cheap and meretricious radiation that one must be intoxicated to appreciate. Indeed, as Fairchok writes,

"That is his appeal; he is [ironically] an actor, a performer, a cinematic presence that stirs simple emotions, emotions that have little grounding in truth. His speeches are the inane lyrics to a popular song that endures only because it has a great beat. One must not think to deeply on what Obama says, for it turns to smoke and disappears in the light of day. Ezra Klein is correct, Obama's speeches do not inform, they pander, they propagandize, they harmonize with the mythology of despair and the chimera of entitlement. As his hagiographies proclaim, he represents a new Camelot, but one that does not hold America quite so precious, a Camelot of globalists, moral relativists and communitarians."

Now, how to drive out a demon? Easy. As UF explains, "Light drives out darkness. This simple truth is the practical key to the problem of how to combat demons. A demon perceived, i.e. on whom the light of consciousness is thrown, is already a demon rendered impotent.... A demon rendered impotent is a deflated balloon."

The lords of Falsehood hold, at present, almost complete sway over poor humanity. Not only the lower life-energy, the lower vital being, but also the whole mind of man accepts them. Countless are the ways in which they are worshipped, for they are more subtle in their cunning and seek their ends in variously seductive disguises. The result is that men cling to their falsehood as if it were a treasure, cherishing it more than even the most beautiful things of life. Apprehensive of its safety, they take care to bury it deep down in themselves; but unless they take it out and surrender it to the Divine they will never find true happiness.

Indeed the very act of bringing it out and showing it to the Light would be in itself a momentous conversion and pave the way to the final victory. For the laying bare of each falsehood is in itself a victory -- each acknowledgment of error is the demolition of one of the lords of Darkness.
--The Mother, Conversations on Yoga

69 comments:

mushroom said...

The mighty B'ob rocks on.

Therefore, the real reason for 9-11 wasn't actually to bring down western civilization. Rather, it was for the Islamists to deepen their fantasy by getting us to play along with it.

I read it and sweep.

Who knew my mother-in-law had read the Islamist playbook? Well, I knew she was a terror...

No wonder the drama queens and attention whores of the world are so sympatico with Islam.

walt said...

Many times in the past, folks (myself included) have asked that you give us "more" about mind parasites. It seems to me that the final two paragraphs by The Mother are a pretty exact prescription for dealing with them.

"...they take care to bury it deep down in themselves ... Indeed the very act of bringing it out and showing it to the Light would be in itself a momentous conversion and pave the way to the final victory. For the laying bare of each falsehood is in itself a victory ..."

And earlier in the post, you described the opposing qualities and tendencies of mind parasites versus "the good," and said that you hoped this description was not "too abstract."

Au contraire! Reading that was like putting on X-Ray Glasses!

Anonymous said...

Yes, but how do you make the light break through the apparently solid cloak of darkness? And how do you do it in time to avoid the disastrous decision that will put the country in the hands of the Left?

Anonymous said...

this says it all:

My fellow Identity-Americans:




As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for their ... well, support.




Your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.




I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.




I would also like to thank the Kennedy's for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee he was having an extra marital affair with who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.




And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.




Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt.




I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them.




Americans are tired of thinking.




It's time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart.




So when you go to vote in the primaries, remember don't think, just do.




And do it for me.




Thank You,

signed,

The lesser of Two evils.

Anonymous said...

nj - >>how do you make the light break through the apparently solid cloak of darkness? And how do you do it in time to avoid the disastrous decision that will put the country in the hands of the Left?<<

Whether it's in time to prevent an historical perversion of the American ethic, I dunno, but it's probably too late - however, the ultimate solution is to begin with yourself, for any individual to begin with him or herself. Never underestimate the power of the Light, individual by individual,to change the world for the better, to ultimately redeem it. Center on Spirit and things will take care of themselves in time.

Anonymous said...

Yes, as the world falls in one direction and you ascend in the other, I recommend using the resultant friction to stoke the fire of agni in the psychic being.

Anonymous said...

'Likewise, anyone with a basic familiarity with economics knows that leftist ideas don't just fail, but backfire.'

Yes, what a failure the tradition of the New Deal has been.

Leftist economic policies only fail according to the odd criteria of far right economic ideology.

And, what familiarity with economics do you have? How would you explain professional economists who completely disagree with your oh so informed view on the subject?

Anonymous said...

Agreeing with will and St. Seraphim: "Acquire a peaceful spirit and around you thousands will be saved;" and with walt about the valuable mind-parasite guidelines.

Many people can use the "radiation" vs. "contraction" metaphor as a physically perceptible kinesthetic check of the inner state, so long as radiation and intoxication are not confused. Radiation may dictate retreat from intoxication.

We have a new baby in the family, and it is easy to monitor the pure radiation of enjoying her presence, and the contraction that sets in when different people [sympathies to the mushroom's broomstick reference] want power, influence, even attention in the situation. From "a little child shall lead them," to "big babies." Radiation vs. contraction.

The Mother:
The lords of Falsehood ...are more subtle in their cunning and seek their ends in variously seductive disguises...Men cling to their falsehood as if it were a treasure.
Devil alert -- when "bad" is declared "good," and the exemplars of the New Virtue formerly Vice not just difficult and forgiveable, but require agreement, endorsement, and embrace. As the pattern unfolds, the continuity of holding to the good becomes evil, for it interrupts the new project. Even leading to Neuhaus' law: Where orthodoxy [or perhaps simple virtue] is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed. The new gospel of "inclusiveness," for example, almost inevitably results in a loveless meltdown and demonization.

All we can do is think as clearly as possible, seek our own clarity and inner stillness, and speak up with confidence where given the opportunity. May mean doing inner and outer homework. With the forces afoot, it's not going to be handed to anyone.

James said...

I wonder if our forward progress is like the business cycle with it's ups and downs. We move forward towards the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, but our inner ape collectively brings us down eventually. Petey has it right, whatever happens in the next few years good or bad, the best thing we can do as individuals is to let God ,or that big O into our lives. You can be an ember of light in the darkness. The embers relight the fire.

Anonymous said...

Obamasupporter;

If you really want to extricate yourself from secular mythology and obtain some basic knowledge of economics, I might recommend FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression and Amity Shlaes acclaimed The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. Hopefully, someday you'll chuckle at your youthful naivete and general asshattery.

Anonymous said...

dilys here.

OBS. You first. What are your economics credentials? The poverty-producing, incentive-skewing truth of the matter of planned economies and pseudo-liberal regulatory tinkering is overwhelming, but I resist the profligacy of wasted breath I suspect an answer to you entails. What, if anything, do you consider plausible evidence and reasoning?

Really, this last one puts the "Oh, 'ell" in "troll."

Anonymous said...

James:

Just remember, unlike liberals, we don't immamentize the eschaton and place our hope for salvation in politics. After all we already had Reagan, which is as good as it will get for conservatives, but the forces of darkness haven't stopped working since then to seal off the light that opened up. It's a permanent struggle until apocalypse time, and it's heresy to think otherwise.

James said...

Obamasupporter,

Which professional economists do you know support the new deal? Come on. If you want to make an argument here with facts, figures, and logic go ahead, but don't just attack the argument of our host with no facts of your own to back it up. You really don't have to be an economist to know many of the new deal programs simply don't work. How is that war on poverty going? Nope we still have poor people I guess we lost that one. Oh and BTW there really isn't any such thing as a professional economist. The economy is a complex system. It doesn't work like say physics were you have equations that can predict the outcome exactly. You can do A and get result B from the economy. Later you can do A again and get result C. Economics is like predicting the weather it is not an exact science. So stop with the attacks on credibility, and the appeal to higher authority moves. That's not a real argument. Show us the beef! Tell us make an argument why we are wrong about Obama and you are right.

Anonymous said...

The idea about throwing light upon a demon to get rid of it reminds me of a book I read years ago called "Taming Your Gremlin" by Rick Carson. The Gremlins he refers to sound very much like mind parasites.

Anonymous said...

Kind of interesting entry point into "poverty" "relative wealth" and "how can you tell?" here.
http://tinyurl.com/373s4q

Particularly interesting in how it highlights that some of the superficialities (old buildings, exotic foods) may be interpreted by the privileged economically-superficial to indicate "intangible wealth greater than any old GDP."

Who was it said, "Cuba is a place that has free health care and universal literacy that thousands of human beings are doing everything they can to get out of."? Silly people, impervious to the aesthetics of all those atmospheric moldering mansions with classic cars outside, generating dusky-light photographs of great interest.

OBS' mileage may vary on these issues.

dilys

Anonymous said...

"The idea about throwing light upon a demon to get rid of it reminds me of a book I read years ago called "Taming Your Gremlin" by Rick Carson."

It also reminds me of William Burroughs' book "Nova Express" (in which mind parasites, or 'Nova criminals', are exposed and isolated as a way of breaking their hold over human minds) as well as the practice of requiring a demon to give its name during an exorcism.

Anonymous said...

Also highly racoomended as a disinfuctup for innumerate moonbats is Tom Sowell's latest blast of common sense, Economic Facts & Fallacies.

BTW, it tells you all you need to know about liberals that they have such contempt for blacks that they think they require "leaders." Furthermore, these "leaders" such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are created and appointed by white liberals. Why isn't Thomas Sowell a "black leader?" Because he teaches blacks not to be dependent on white liberals.

walt said...

The Late Edition of OC quotes Calypso Louis:
"If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed."

Perhaps he simply misspoke -- but the word transform doesn't fit the phrase "look at the effect." Must we equate the excitement generated by a crowd chanting "YES. WE. CAN!" to "a thorough and dramatic change"? Puh-leaze. Or maybe Louis and I see with different eyes?

To me, it is better described by the follow-on sentence by UF:
"owing to an intoxication of the will and imagination ..."

There's an old saying: Don't ever fall in love with a politician -- they will always break your heart!

Of course, one way to avoid a hangover is to just keep drinking .... But that doesn't really accord with the Raccoon Way.

James said...

Petey,

Yes, we are on the same page I think. Politics is not going to save us. I was remarking on how civilization historically has it's ups and downs just like the business cycle, and our stupid ape nature seems to pull us down sooner or later. The fall of Rome comes to mind. Of course, this isn't a bleak picture. Each successive civilization at least in the West has been better then the one before, but I could be barking up the wrong tree. I only have the historical perspective. I don't have a timeless perspective.

QP said...

We've Fallen and Can't Get Up Alert:

Barack Obama is the ''hope of the entire world''.

''A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.'' - -From his Saviour's Day speech yesterday.

Anonymous said...

anon- my econ knowledge isn't the point, Bob's is. I would guess I have about the same knowledge, perhaps a bit more or less, than Bob, in that I've taken basic econ courses and have done a moderate amount of study of the subject on my own. But the point is that neither Bob, you nor I are economists. The point is that Bob[a non-economist] pretends that the subject is very simple and that there is consensus, despite vast and complex disagreements within the field. I know enough about economic theory to know that even formulating what would be 'left' or 'right' economic ideas is very difficult, let alone coming to a definitive, sweeping conclusion the way Bob did. This is the basic problem with this whole Blog; that Bob is not an expert in anything yet he behaves like he is an expert in everything.

James- I made no appeal to authority. In fact, this is what Bob did when he said that anyone who knows anything about economics agrees with his view, which is not only false, but totally unsupported by any evidence. Why should I be compelled to give evidence is Bob doesn't. If he wants to try to prove that everyone with substantial knowledge of economics shares his views on the subject, he is free to do so. But until he does this there is no reason to accept it.

cous dup- If liberals have such contempt for blacks, perhaps you can explain why blacks vote overwhelmingly democratic and largely are a part of the more left section of the party. The only explanation I can think of is that you think they are all ignorant and delusional, easily confused. If this isn't contempt for the black community, I don't know what is.

Magnus Itland said...

I'm aware that the phrase "a place that the rest of humanity covets" is a simply a quote in a much larger context, with which I largely agree. However, the rest of humanity is rapidly shrinking and now probably mostly entails Latin America. You can thank the flair and relentless work of your mass media, I think.

Europeans (and presumably Asians with access to American TV) think of the USA as a land where the rich live in castle-sized mansions while the poor starve under bridges. A land where policemen beat up black people in the streets and where people of Middle-Eastern looks are harassed and arrested with no recourse to justice. A land where a well-paid lawyer can let a criminal go free or send an innocent to his death... especially if the criminal is white and the innocent is black. A land where a hard day's work is not enough to feed your family, and where millions of children go to bed hungry.

If it were European journalists that painted this picture, we might take it with a grain of salt. But more often than not, it is Americans who tell us that America is rotten to the core.

Even among the countries where it is legal and fashionable to criticize one's own country and government, nobody does it with the fervor and conviction of Americans. Do not underestimate the power of consensus reality.

Anonymous said...

blah, blah, blah, OBS, blah, blah

Snore

C'mon kits, it's just a case of OBS "deepen his fantasy by getting us to play along with it."

Ok OBS, this is where you jump in with the utterly predictable: 'I never defined my gender...blahblah...you're a Sexist...blahblah'

Mushroom got it right:
"No wonder the drama queens and attention whores of the world are so sympatico with ______."

Why O why are wannabe trolls invariably so uninteresting & downright boring

Anonymous said...

There will always be Marxist economics professors, because it is in their economic interest to be Marxist (otherwise they couldn't be hired at a liberal university). There will never be a business that operates along the lines of Marxist economic principles. At least not for long.

Anonymous said...

OB Supporter,
I find it interesting that you continue to read a blog written by;
".... a hacky blog writer who spouts new age, christian-ish psychobabble."
Hasn't your saviour lifted you above such trivial, time consuming activities? I mean, you could be stuffing fliers, making campaign calls or washing his feet.
If you wish to have any credibility or substance, answer just one question. With all the leftists/communists/anti semites/jihadists, giddy with excitement that they will finally have the U.S. switching to their side in contunuing the Revolution and recognizing Obama as a fellow traveler, are they;

1. Just projecting their own world view into his empty rhetoric.

Or

2. Actually seeing a fellow Brother in Arms, particularly the communists.

And if the latter, are you in sympathy and agreement with them?

Anonymous said...

BO-jockstrap
Do you have any idea at all how of stupid you make yourself look? Do you read any of the twaddle you dump here? You clearly do not read, let alone comprehend any others write here, especially Gagdad Bob.

Get a life youngster; spend some time out of your Mom’s basement, go for a walk, breathe deep, clear you mind, and grow up.

This is the last time I will feed the troll, and I suggest others not waste pixels on it either.

Gagdad Bob said...

OS:

Name the last three economics books you've read during, say, the last six months. That will probably explain everything.

Gagdad Bob said...

Let's make it easier -- just name the top five economists that have had the most influence on your worldview. We'll let Marx-Engels count as one.

Anonymous said...

Just to put something totally random and gratuitous out there: I really hope that the "raccoon metaphysics" can start to filter out to the wider world.

Much of what I read here fills the gaping hole in much of the Wilber/What is Englightenment? position. The Wilber/WIE axis often seems to be such an odd mix of brilliance and circle jerkery that it leaves us foot soldiers often in a state of mild confusion. To say the least.

Is there a new book in the works?

robinstarfish said...

It's not over till the fat lady votes. Even with the full-court McCain character assassination already underway, I'm not ready to assume Obama has endarkened enough real voters. November's a bit out there yet.

"Now, how to drive out a demon? Easy. As UF explains, "Light drives out darkness."

Keep pouring on the light, keep talking, keep the faith baby cuz I can't dance to apocalypso.

TBD
waiting in traffic
clouds pass indifferently
light conversation

julie said...

Good point, Robin. I had a long diatribe about economics all ready to go, but I think I'll just post this instead. It's too beautiful today to linger in the dungeon with trolls.



The gloom has lifted,
and overnight it is Spring,
irrepressible.

Anonymous said...

Julie, I'm with you.
Looked out the back door & the plum tree is in bloom. Went out & the air is filled with the buzzing of bees as they're busy making sure we'll have plenty of fruit.

Aaaaaaah Yes! Now the house is full of blossoms, bringing the smell of spring with them.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Bright nights rise anew
Let us pray for winsome Spring
Again and again

Anonymous said...

Just looked out the back door and peach tree is in two feet of snow.

walt said...

Dense clouds but no rain from our western region ....

Anonymous said...

"Yes, what a failure the tradition of the New Deal has been."

Margaret Dumont: "I've never been so insulted in all my life!"

Groucho: "It's early yet."

Translation for OBS: Judging from how wet you sound behind the ears, I'd start socking it away in my own private retirement plan.

Whoa! wv: boobmfk

Anonymous said...

Either that, or get an NEA grant for creative accounting. That way, and at least you can draw a government check for your economic innumeracy.

walt said...

While we're slamming liberal policies, here's a description from Ann Althouse:

"HILLARY IS SHAMING OBAMA for telling people she's going to force them to buy insurance whether they can afford it or not. It really is so unfair. She's going to force them to buy insurance only if she thinks they can afford it. There will be tax credits and subsidies to get them to the level where they will be told they can afford it. Surely, no one will think they can't afford it once they government has figured out that they can."

Anonymous said...

I forgot to add "anti war anarchists" to my list of Obama sycophants above.
Awhile back I spoke of waiting for a train to cross the highway shortly before 9/11, listening to NPR and a member of the 60's radicals "The Weather Underground" discussing his new book and his righteous cause before the events of 9/11 shut his unrepentent terrorist ass down.
Leave it to Obama to bring him back into the limelight and put a name to the voice.
Bill Ayers was proudly pimping his new book 'Fugitive Days, A Memoir', making the rounds but had to retreat to his hole because of circumstances beyond his control.
Apparently, our boy Obama has links to Ayers and his wife (also a member of the merry band) from his "pure as the driven snow" Chicago political days.
He was no doubt doing terrorist research at the time to prepare himself for the Presidency.
The company you keep.

Anonymous said...

Obamasupporter wrote:

"This is the basic problem with this whole Blog; that Bob is not an expert in anything yet he behaves like he is an expert in everything."

Well, you got it wrong. Bob IS an expert at psychology. However, I agree that he is not so hot on many of the other fields he gets himself tangled up in.

Bob manages the difficult trick of being arrogant without any egotism attached to it. He has a kind of naive sureness engengered by his close walk with God. He launches fearlessly into areas like economics with breathtaking irresponsiblity, I aver.

I have advised him about this several times in my troll missives but his self-certainty will not crack. Sooner could you fell the Hoover Dam by directing thoughts at it.

For instance, he is convinced that most environmental concerns are vastly overblown, even hysterical. You could completely denude the Arctic of ice and he would never waver on this point. Once he hunkers down with a position his pride will not let him give it up. He has never conceded any point to any troll on this blog.

Now, does this cut down on his effectiveness? Not really, if you are conscious of it. When Bob speaks on mass psychology, listen up for it is probably the best you're going to hear anywhere.

On other matters, not so much.

walt said...

Hoarhey -

Shades of Chicago 1968: I read yesterday that one of his policy advisors is Tom Hayden.

The company you keep, redux.

Van Harvey said...

njcommuter said "...how do you make the light break through the apparently solid cloak of darkness?"

Will said ... "...begin with yourself, for any individual to begin with him or herself. Never underestimate the power of the Light, individual by individual,to change the world for the better, to ultimately redeem it. Center on Spirit and things will take care of themselves in time."

Yes. How do you help the light to break? By shining it! Don't forget the power of just plain calling people on the foolishness that they say! I've said it before here, and elsewhere, the next lunch or gathering of some sort that you're at, don't let the smugly assumed `everyone agrees with me' slurs and sarcastic comments about conservatives in particular or of the West in general, go unanswered.

By now it should be clearly self evident to those who've shied away from the debate, the modern left is not only unable to debate the issues in any way other than accusations, outlandish equivocations, non-sequiters and condescending insults, but more importantly they are utterly unaware of the ideas behind their own positions, and completely unable to defend them. Call them on it. Ask them to explain what they mean, and the wise alternative they propose. It's not that difficult to expose their emptiness, and to their utter horror, find people laughing AT their feeble positions.

When Franklin answered the question of what the constitutional convention had given us, with "A Republic - if you can keep it.", he knew full well that we'd have to struggle to keep it, and to maintain a moral standing and firmness in ourselves to be able to keep it.

If we can't answer back these snide snipers, we won't keep it. Do we really want to allow... to admit to being defeated by Nothing!!!? It is up to us to stop them in their tracks, but we can't do it quietly, we need to answer them out loud and to their face and in front of their friends, neighbors and relatives. Too often I see people just let it slide by... don't want to make a fuss. I'm sure many of those of Germany in the 1920's and 1930's said and did the same. Not a good track record to follow.

julie said...

Anonymous - you mean this global warming?

Please. The polar ice caps are actually thicker right now than they've been in a couple years. You know why? 'Cause it's frickin cold. We'll start worrying about global warming when this guy says it's getting a little too toasty. Not before.

Van Harvey said...

obs said "Yes, what a failure the tradition of the New Deal has been."

Not to mention the educational system, that generates people ignorant enough to say that sarcastically, instead of seriously.

"Leftist economic policies only fail according to the odd criteria of far right economic ideology."

Yeah, results. What an odd criteria.

"And, what familiarity with economics do you have? How would you explain professional economists who completely disagree with your oh so informed view on the subject?"

Leftist self stupefication. And public education. Heck of a one-two knockout punch.

Gagdad Bob said...

Julie--

Yes, unlike the global warming fraud, the global cooling scenario is a potentially serious situation.

Gagdad Bob said...

More on the problem of Global Cooling.

walt said...

From Bob's linked article, an example of Left Wing clarity:

"In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming."

Anonymous said...

All I know is, I've been living in Bob's garage now for a little over two years, and I've been freezing my ASS off.

Anonymous said...

What's with being enamored of ceding your ability to think clearly about issues to an 'expert'? Can't ya'll logic your own way out of a paper bag on your lonesome? Somebody else gotta tell ya what to think? Don't trust your own judgement?

Quick! Find an Expert!

You know, the types with which we're all familiar: tons of certificates proudly displayed on every surface in sight & barely two little-gray-cells to rub together when you talk to them.

Humm, I'm thinking this inability of individuals to think critically has gotta be tied to that group-grope stuff Julie linked to a couple of days ago.

A whole generation of consensus wonks. Good Lord.

Anonymous said...

Expert texpert choking smokers, don't you think the joker laughs at you?

Ho ho ho, he he he, ha ha ha!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, more mind parasites. And more light! Where's the reincarnation of Will Rogers. This stuff just writes itself.... Obama's gonna be the savior because he was a child of a white mom? (WSJ) I don't make this stuff up, I just read the paper.

Saw a turtle... little bitty guy basking in the sun on the roots of the oak the other day. Spring and new hope.

I've always rued the looooong election cycle. Now I have to hope that the disinfecting force of light will strike the great sensible majority in the middle of the US electorate.

Anonymous said...

Obamasuppository asked the other day re: the object of his veneration, "what's wrong with excitement?", ie, what's amiss with the excited intoxication of O's fan base.

Excitement is by definition "ex", without, this as opposed to enthusiasm, "entheo", God resonating from within. Excitement thus tingles the material senses, nothing more.

More, excitement often depends on glamorization, which really amounts to having a spell cast on one - glamorization is a soporific, it induces a kind of sleep, one doesn't see what is really there.

Enthusiasm, as generated by a Reagan, for example, does not induce sleep but rather conduces wakefulness - it is literally consciousness-raising. Enthusiasm doesn't give one the heady sensual rush of excitement/glamorization. It affects real change from within.

I have to think that Obama's ascendency is due in great measure to the fact that there is now - has been for quite a while now - a collective addiction to glamour via the electronic media, entertainment-saturation in general with all its numbing trivialities. This glamorizing, this spell-casting has been going on for generations and may now be near a completion of sorts. One might even suspect a diabolic conspiracy, the origin being a place where dominions reside and plot.

Anonymous said...

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966: Welcome to the New Ice Age.

Van Harvey said...

Will said,

"Obamasuppository"

ROFLOL!!!

julie said...

Frankly, Cuz, it seems clear to me that we aren't doing nearly enough to make AGW a reality; better a warming period than an ice age, methinks.

Van Harvey said...

Maineman,
I'm with you. I've got ice on the ground, rain falling all day, and snow coming tonight.

Ximeze said "Looked out the back door & the plum tree is in bloom. "

Julie said "...overnight it is Spring,..."

Rggrllgrfulgnegdk...[insert obscene comment here] gryllg-dugunken rglyfff....Whooo's dat trip trappin' across MY BRIDGE!?


;-)

QP said...

Will has a mighty keen gnos. He smells something cooking.

There's going to be a feast.

QP said...

WTF? Another friggin' feast.

Van Harvey said...

Ximeze said "What's with being enamored of ceding your ability to think clearly about issues to an 'expert'? Can't ya'll logic your own way out of a paper bag on your lonesome? Somebody else gotta tell ya what to think? Don't trust your own judgment?"

I had the same reaction on reading that. I wanted to say "Can't you use your own common sense?!" And then it struck me what he'd said, and I felt like the old movie bit where the gruff guy says to the guy who bumps into him "What?! You BLIND or something?!" and the blind guy says "Yes, I am." and then the uncomfortable "Oh... ah... I see...doh! I mean... argh..."

Economics in principle, is pretty blasted simple, like mathematics... while it can be extended into some high end calculus, the simple principles never vary or contradict each other; 2+2 will always equal 4, and 2 -4 will always leave you -2 in the hole, and 0's... no matter how many, added to 2, won't add anything more to it (unless they're added behind the 2, in which case they call you a Lotto winner in Georgia).

The 'expert economist's' like Keynes tried a system of taking away more than you add, then going through a flurry of three card monty movements and all manner of adding zero's to numbers, and pretending the sheer speed of adding the zero's would add something to the system. Like the good three card monty player's, he wow'd the crowd who bought his expertise, but in the end his system was shown to try to add 2 + -4 and claim it amounted to 6, when in fact reality showed it to leave you with nothing more than -2, and a lot of other bad negatives stuff to boot.

Keynes’s many awards and acclamations are now mostly met with uncomfortable silences, while the award givers attempt to switch the conversation to another topic. (BTW, Keynes's was the system FDR used. It didn't work. It now has a 70 year track record of not working. Good economists (meaning non-Krugman-ninnies) no longer put any stock in Keynes' system... because... it ... doesn't... work. It doesn't add up. That's a bad thing in economics.

Start with the basics. As Gagdad mentioned, Thomas Sowell's book's are an excellent place to start. Or Milton Freidman's "Free to Choose" or if you prefer the free lunch route(duh!), these classics are available on the net, the essay "I Pencil" , or Fredrich Bastiat's (one of the last worthwhile Frenchmen) "Economic Sophism's" (this one with an introduction by Henry Hazlitt an excellent economist himself) or "The Law" (this link has an Introduction by Walter E. Williams, also a good educator of economics).

I know that's assuming you don't mind reading and would like to know what you presume to be able to condemn without knowing... but I am an optimist. A pessimistic one, but an optimist all the same.

Anonymous said...

Bob,

"Cloud Hidden" - Alan Watts?

I like it here -- it's warm, and it smells good.

Magnus Itland said...

Keynesian economic policies gave us the age of stagflation. The problem with the Bush era economics was not too much Friedman but too little. Then again, it is hard to get too much Friedman. I may quibble with details of his predictions, but I still wish all men were Friedmen, if you know what I mean.

Van Harvey said...

FM said "Cloud Hidden"

"...Whereabouts unknown"

walt said...

All it took was a second cup of coffee this morning to begin to connect up the terrific opportunities involved in the coming Global Cooling.

For instance, Sal already knows how to make first-class sweaters for children, who will need to be kept warm! And Smoov: think international distribution of Raccoon Caps (faux fur, of course), to help seekers preserve their agni -- AND, as a "vehicle" to promote Bob's book, causing sales to skyrocket! And now Robin is offering a series of "racy and edgy" DVD's, just in time for entertainment-starved snow-bound citizens!

We could distribute from sunny Florida (Joan) and spring-is-here Arizona (Julie).




There are possibilities here, people....

Anonymous said...

I knew the whole Global Warming thing was a fraud early on due to an infallible methodology. I watched to see who was the most invested in the hypothesis and noticed that the group was composed of those who had been wrong about EVERYTHING for over a century.

And then the Nobel committee stole my thoughts and proved me correct last year.

Anonymous said...

Now, it should go without saying that my heart was in a different place from my head. I was so looking forward to being able to start a leading Maine winery.

Anonymous said...

"Well, you got it wrong. Bob IS an expert at psychology. However, I agree that he is not so hot on many of the other fields he gets himself tangled up in."

Anon 5:05pm,

You betray distinctly non-holistic thinking.

Psychology, especially of the kind in which il Bobbo is trained, is "tangled up" in everything. Understanding human nature, thinking, and psychopathology is the key to the whole (i)deal, and that's why he's usually right.

Magnus Itland said...

I don't think Bob's strength is that he is a psychologist, although it does come in handy at times. But a lot of psychologists are "profession idiots" as we say around here, with a narrow mind. Probably fewer than you would believe from the leftist bent of their organizations, though: Leftists love to organize, after all, as opposed to just doing their job.

julie said...

Speaking of the New Deal, Lileks has some interesting observations about the NRA (and no, that's not the gun folks) on today's Bleat.

Anonymous said...

You're right, Magnus, about psychologists being idiots by and large. The distinction, though, is that psychoanalytic thinking, such as Bob often refers to and relies upon, has always been more about the psyche, vertical and otherwise, than about the synaptic and biological preoccupations that fascinate our modern brethren.

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